Healthy competition is moving into three popular shopping centers. By summer’s end, LYFE Kitchens are slated to open in Dallas’ Preston Center, Uptown’s West Village and at Park Boulevard and Preston Road in Plano, says executive Mike Donahue.

[UPDATE at 10:30 a.m. May 28: Plano opens June 13, Preston Center opens June 27 and West Village opens July 25, according to a spokesman.]

LYFE (that’s Love Your Food Everyday) Kitchen serves dishes that are 600 calories or less, 1000 milligrams of sodium or less, and contain little to no white sugar or trans fatty acids. Customers order at the counter, then grab a seat.

Two of its executives are former McDonald’s management. Current LYFE president and CEO, Mike Roberts, was president and CEO for McDonald’s globally. Donahue was chief brand and communications officer for McDonald’s USA.

LYFE Kitchen interior, as shown here in Chicago

LYFE Kitchen is “a combination of everything we learned over 20 years in food service for the industry’s largest brand,” Donahue says. ” … [LYFE Kitchen is] just a different menu.”

That menu is marked with gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian dishes as well as calorie counts and sodium. Example menu items that could appear at the Dallas-area restaurants include barbecue chicken flatbread (470 calories), quinoa crunch wrap with avocado, edamame, hummus and black rice (539 calories) or roasted salmon with tomato, fennel, broccolini, garlic and tomato coulis (517 calories).

The menus at the Dallas-area LYFEs will be largely the same as in other states, but possibly with “a little more heat,” Donahue says.

The company is eyeing other Dallas-area addresses besides the three opening soon, and it is also considering locations in Austin and Houston, Donahue told me.

Chef Art Smith, who was once Oprah Winfrey’s personal chef, joins vegan and vegetarian chef Tal Ronnen, author of The Conscious Cook, to curate the corporate menu. Donahue says the company aspires to open 250 LYFE Kitchens in five years. For now, the California-born business, launched in 2011, has four storefronts open.

“The model is great-tasting, convenient, affordable food that happens to be very good for you,” Donahue says. “We believe that it answers the biggest unmet consumer need in America.”

I know, what great timing. The heat didn’t melt enthusiasm though at the Uptown shopping compound’s first farmers market. It was a smallish gathering beside the parking garage, but filled with great vendors such as the new Oak Cliff-based Urban Acres.

I had a nice chat with Ty Wolosin (above) who manages Windy Hill Organics in Comanche, Texas — and certainly fits the West Village demographic. Wolosin brought in items such as summer squash, baby carrots, beets and “hot, very spicy radishes.” Coming soon, seven varieties of okra.

Did you miss it? FM 3699 runs each Saturday this summer from 8 a.m. to noon. Park in the garage behind Taco Diner.

Went for pizza at Campania over by West Village last evening, and we noticed a construction crew hard at work next door, readying a new venue at the Mondrian CityPlace.

The logoed sign already over the door says the space going to be Yogilicious Frozen Yogurt, and their website says the shop is opening this Saturday, Sept. 27. This is a new Dallas-based chain, with more outlets are planned in Plano, Frisco and Austin.

With its varied selections of flavored soft-serve frozen yogurts, garnished with fresh fruit and dry toppings, Yogilicious is getting into a very busy fro-yo scene in Dallas. But as far as I can recall, this will be the only such yogurt shop in the immediate West Village neighborhood. And even though summer is officially over, the local market for fruit-topped frozen yogurt seems still to be heating up.

Alberto Lombardi is set to open Pescabar in the West Village for dinner tonight. The restaurant is described as an “Italian seafood and crudo bar.” The menu will focus on “fresh fish and seafood flown in daily from Hawaii, San Francisco, New York and Washington State.”

The press release says: “The highlight of the menu at Pescabar will be a Crudo Sense Frontiere (Italian for ‘raw bar without borders’) featuring several types of oysters, scallops, arctic char, Dungeness crab, salmon, tuna and snapper plus incredible seafood Carpaccio and Pescabar’s unique version of Italian sashimi.

“The full menu will offer pastas with seafood, baked oysters, clams, mussels, two or three choices of ceviche, risotto, chicken and steak. The pastry chef is also planning an exquisite dessert menu offering numerous Italian specialties.”

Mr. Lombardi says, “The specialty of the house will be a Piatto al Frutti Di Mare containing crab, oysters, shrimp, ceviche and lobster.”

Pescabar will serve lunch and dinner seven days a week, with a seafood brunch on Saturdays and Sundays.

Pescabar in The West Village, 3699 McKinney Avenue, #106; 214-522-3888.